Justin Thorn

So it is four days after we returned from our weekend vacation to the mountains of WV and I now have some time this afternoon to finally make a post. We got a late start Thursday evening after work. We left Greenville around 6:30PM and headed north. The decision was already made ahead of time to break the long drive up into two days. Normally in the summer a 7.5 – 8 hour drive is average. In the winter it can grow longer. We drove for about 4 hours until we reached Warrenton VA. Spent the night there and started fresh again the next morning around 9AM. Finished the last 4 hour leg of the journey and stopped in Morgantown to meet my Grandma and John for lunch. Bob Evans was the choice and I wasn’t complaining. The food was great after a healthy drive on the highway. The weather cooperated with only a few flurries in the sky the last hour of the drive. After lunch we headed over to Dad’s house to stay the rest of the weekend.

It was so great to get to see everyone and spend quality time with the family. Dad and Kim were down over Thanksgiving visiting here in NC but the rest of the gang I have not seen since last summer. Everyone managed to get off work and rearrange their schedules around us which was great since we were not there for a long period of time. Just a couple days. Friday night we went into the huge metropolitan county seat of Kingwood (pop under 3000). We had dinner off mainstreet at Monroe’s which is “the only place to eat in town” according to everyone who lives there. I saw a hand full of people who’s faces I recognized but I couldn’t always remember their names or where I knew them from. Some were old teachers and administrators from elementary, junior high, and high school. Others were parents of my sister’s friends or something along those lines. No one recognized me and I chose not to speak to any of them since it was awkward. It reminded me how little things have changed over the past decade since I have moved away.

Saturday morning bright and early we woke up to fresh snow on the ground and heavy showers nearly all day long. Dad, Lauren, and I packed up in the Jeep and headed off on the snow covered roads up the mountain into Maryland. Destination Wisp ski resort. Thanks to all the recent snow nearly all the trails and lifts were operational. The weather however was brutally cold. The high for the day was 17 degrees with wind chills approaching zero. That was when we arrived at 10AM. By the time we left that evening the temp was 7 degrees with sub-zero wind chill. We were froze to the bone all day. I know I promised lots of new photos from the trip but unfortunately the freezing temps wreaked havoc on all electronics. It was so cold the batteries were not holding a proper charge. Cellphones kept turning off or complaining of low battery life. The digital camera refused to take more than one snapshot and that was inside the lodge. You can check them out here on Flickr. There are also pictures of my new baby nephew I saw for the first time. He is 7 months old already. Skiing was a lot of fun regardless of the weather. We of course started slowly on the beginner slopes. After lunch we hit the intermediate trails which proved to be much icier and harder to control on. Lauren only took one big spill on one run down but she got back up and kept going. Later in the day she headed back over to the beginner slopes to take it easy while Dad and I pounded our way down the blue trails and contemplated hitting a black diamond or two. After seeing only a few brave souls on the advanced slopes we took that as a sign to stay away. We rounded out the day on a couple long easy runs and hurried back to the car for thawing.

Sunday was relaxing day at Dad’s house. We got to spend a good amount of quality time with my grandparents next door and my cousin from Pennsylvania came to visit for the afternoon as well. That evening we had a huge family dinner with all my stepsisters there. That night we stayed up past midnight playing card games and listening to music while we laughed and reminisced about ‘Back In The Day’. Most of it was about the stupid things I did but it was entertaining none the less. Monday was the looooooonnnnggg drive home. Total time on the road in one shot….10 hours. We got back around 8PM and began unpacking and preparing for a new work week ahead. YEAH! Anyhow it is the weekend again after a short week and I am looking forward to relaxing at home here in NC now!